Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. (IOC) is on track to supply the cleaner Bharat Stage VI fuels in the State by April next year. Already the company has been supplying the fuel sourced from its Mathura refinery to the automobile industry for trials and a pump in Mettupalayam is selling it on a trial basis for Mahindra vehicles, its Executive Director P. Jayadevan told a press conference here on Tuesday.
The company is supplying 600 kilo litres (KL) of diesel and 40 kilo litres of petrol every month and the quantity of diesel is likely to go up in a couple of months by another 400 KL. “Before the low-sulphur products are launched, we will require some time to test and switch over since it involves different storages,” he said. Similarly, according to IMO 2020 (MARPOL guidelines), IOC is gearing up to provide marine fuel oils with sulphur content of 0.5% to marine tanker vessels as against the current limit of 3.5%. It will make available such fuel oils at all ports in the State by October this year, ahead of the deadline of January 1, 2020.
Due to growing demand for petrol and diesel in the State, IOC has proposed to convert a booster station at Asanur into a full-fledged terminal that would supply fuel to the surrounding districts of Villupuram, Cuddalore, Perambular and Puducherry.
The company was also in the process of creating additional tankage at Madurai, Sankari, Tiruchi and Coimbatore terminals that would be able to store 52,000 KL of diesel and 12,000 KL of petrol. Mr. Jayadevan said his company had implemented solar systems at 876 retail outlets out of which 221 were rural areas. “This will ensure uninterrupted customer service even during power failure. IOC is committed to renewable energy solution to protect the environment and further targets to solarise 450 more outlets this year,” he added.
